A week later... Update on my ankle to butt flexibility: I'm only about 3 inches away from touching my butt with my ankles if I push my leg towards it. So that's an improvement of about 2 inches per week. This is quite the improvement from when I stopped lengthening and could only bend my leg about 100 degrees. This means that I should be able to touch my ankle to my butt by the end of this month. Improved flexibility means that getting around is less painful, because I'm not stretching as much to move around. Stretching is my only source of pain right now - mainly my quad muscles.
Importance of stretching: So I did an experiment on myself to see if stretching actually improves flexibility significantly. I stopped stretching my right leg as much as my left leg just to see if there's a difference (in pain and stretching). And there was. My right leg is still around 6 inches away from reaching my butt. Not much improvement from a week ago. So if you're doing LL, be sure to stretch regularly! It makes a big difference. There wasn't a big difference in pain, though. I'm still waking up every morning with both my legs feeling really stiff and somewhat painful. Hopefully that will go away when I've reached my goal of being able to touch my ankles to my butt.
Maybe some LL veteran who experienced the same stiff leg pain can chime in and let me know if the pain ever goes away.
DoingItForMe's Precice 2 Internal Femurs with Dr. Paley
I finally did it. I touched my thigh with the back of my ankle on my left leg. But this is with assistance from me pulling my foot towards it. Either way, I'm happy that I achieved the full 170 degrees on at least one leg. The other leg is still 3 inches away reaching the thigh. So I'm guessing that it'd take another week or two before that leg can reach my thighs.
If I don't assist my foot, my left ankle dangles 3 inches away from my thighs. I'm sure that in two weeks, it would be able to reach the thighs without assistance. At which point, it'd have only taken me two months to go from 90 degree flexibility to 170-180 degrees.
So I strongly believe that you can regain your flexibility if you really tried to. My butt used to be flat and missing when I was lengthening. It has now returned a bit. Still not as full as prior to surgery, but there's at least something now. When I'm able to do squats again, I'm sure that it'll fill back in.
Paley said that there's strong possibility that I'll be able to fully weight bear on the left leg after only 2 months after I stop lengthening. That'd be impressive, because I lengthened for 3 months. In my x-ray on the left leg, the bone growth looks like a big bulge. It's thicker than the original femur. No wonder why they say that a broken bone becomes stronger after it heals.
Also, I think Dr. Paley is very conservative with the weight bearing numbers. I'm very positive that I went past his weight bearing limits a few times by accident, and I turned out fine. I am about 90% certain that I am fully weight bearing already right now on the left leg, because I tried standing on one leg and slowly letting go of my walker. I didn't feel any pain like I used when I put too much weight on it. The right leg still feels a sharp pain if I tried the same. As soon as I felt the pain, I immediately stopped putting weight on it.
But keep in mind that this was only while standing. If I were to walk, it'd probably put more than my full weight on one leg because of the stomping action. But my theory is that Paley is very conservative with the weight bearing numbers. I'd prefer it that way, so that when he says that I can fully walk again, I'll know for sure that I can fully walk again.
Congratulations on your achievement. I'm sure you'll regain your full flexibility very soon. Do you feel stiffness in your quads or any discomfort in your knees in the morning or when you have kept them straight for some time and suddenly try to bend them fully?
Yes. I asked Dr. Paley about that and he said that it'd go away with time. I'm thinking that it has to do with the fact that I keep stretching my legs everyday to try to regain flexibility. So the pain is probably growing pains or my muscle fibers ripping and regrowing.
I tried taking a few steps today without much assistance with my walker. I was able to walk. But I was only willing to take a few steps. In an emergency, I think I'll be able to walk a few steps. It feels weird to walk unassisted. My legs feel very weak.
Today's probably the first time in a long time that I didn't wake up with my legs feeling stiff or in pain. It's been almost exactly two months since I've stopped lengthening. Waking up to pain in my legs everyday for the rest of my life was one of my fears, even though Dr. Paley reassured me that it'd go away. But it's a great feeling when you know it has stopped. It's probably because I stopped forcing my quad muscles to stretch to regain flexibility. The only pain left in my legs is where the top end of my femur is. I suspect that it's the feeling of the ends of the screws rubbing against my flesh. That pain is only felt if I press down on that bony part of the femur or if I move my legs in an angle where the femur rubs against my flesh.
Today's also the first time I touched my right thigh with my right ankle. This means that I've been able to touch both thighs with both ankles now.
But I've stop making progress with touching my butt with my ankles on the left leg. I compared myself with my flexible friend who can do splits, and she wasn't able to touch her butt with her ankles without using her arms, too. So I guess it's normal for your ankles to be 3 inches or so away from your butt when you bend your knees with only your leg muscles. So I've stopped trying to stretch my legs further, because I wanted to know if the pain in my quad muscles would go away from all the stretching I've done. It did, and I hope stays that way.
I forgot to mention that I hung out with a friend of mine who used to be taller than me. He noticed that I was taller. I asked him how tall he was, and he said 5' 10". I'm actually only about 5'9". But I looked about the same height as him, since I probably had thicker sole sneakers. Anyway, he thought that I was taller than him. He guessed that I was 5'11". I think this proves my point that a lot of people can't tell the difference between 1-2 inches. Even when it comes to celebrity heights, there are differing answers online, because it's hard to tell down to the inch how tall someone actually is just by looking at them. This helped with my height neurosis a lot, because 5'10" was my ideal height and goal. I can finally say without a doubt that I don't need any more height. I'm happy with what I have now.
Electric Wheelchairs
I mentioned in Iamready's journal about my electric wheelchair being a game changer, so I should probably mention that in my own journal as well in case someone only reads this one and not his. One of the things that people rarely mention in their journals is how useful an electric wheelchair is. Ever since I bought one, I use it everyday both during lengthening and during consolidation. It is much more convenient to be able to control the chair with one hand and use the other one to hold things or open doors. It's also foldable, so I can call an Uber and have them put it in their trunk. This means that I can go anywhere without needing someone to accompany me to push me around.
I went with one of the more expensive ones because of shipping time and features. The one I have has a long battery life. During day-to-day use, I only recharge maybe once every 2-3 weeks. It has a 10 hour battery life with a 3 mph speed limit. So that's about 30 miles in one charge.
This is the one I use that costs $2000 called Smart Chair:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EBXBC4K/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00EBXBC4K&linkCode=as2&tag=lilefo-20&linkId=UBS36HE3JSS7JULD
The one I have is the cheapest and best reviewed one I can find for fold-able electric wheelchairs. All of them seem to be built similarly from China, so I doubt that it matters which brand you buy. Here's one that's $1400 called LiteRider that I saw someone else use. It needs to be disassembled to fit in a trunk, but it says that it's easy to disassemble. I asked that person how she liked it, and she said it worked great.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N501YSE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00N501YSE&linkCode=as2&tag=lilefo-20&linkId=P5WGG54NGU4C2BMO
The above two ones are very small and have 360 degree in motion. That's what I like about them. You can go almost anywhere a normal person can go without much trouble - except for stairs. The ones that I don't like are the ones where you have to back-up to make a 180 turn. It's very annoying in narrow aisles and hallways. These are the ones you find at Walmart and the loud beeping noises when you reverse is annoying to everyone around you. The one I have doesn't have a reverse beeping noise, because you rarely have to reverse in the first place. You just rotate 360 degrees in place, and then start going in the direction that you want. This also makes going through lines at the bank easy with their sharp 90 degree turns.
But if you rather save money rather than have the convenience of lightweight and 360 motion, here's a $670 electric wheelchair:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GPGKN4G/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00GPGKN4G&linkCode=as2&tag=lilefo-20&linkId=WNAUTYRO7VMGPTW5
Crutches
When I first used regular crutches, they were very uncomfortable to use and they hurt my palms and armpits. But then the PT team and other patients recommended that I grab myself a pair of Mobilegs Ultra:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005I5OP6M/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005I5OP6M&linkCode=as2&tag=lilefo-20&linkId=U52XE3CULK7MI537
They're much lighter than regular crutches, and feel much more comfortable. The arm pit rest are rubbery and spring loaded, so it feels comfortable to rest my body on my arm pits when I get tired. And the hand grips are ergonomic and conform with your hands. It feels natural to hold them. They also conveniently fit underneath my Smart Chair electric wheelchair.
In terms of bone consolidation, where are you and how far until you can walk unaided? And how frequent is your contact with Paley or his staff during this process?
Good update, glad things are going well.
Quote from: Alu on November 24, 2015, 10:36:06 PMIn terms of bone consolidation, where are you and how far until you can walk unaided? And how frequent is your contact with Paley or his staff during this process?
Good update, glad things are going well.
The last I did an x-ray and heard from Dr. Paley was a month ago. And he said that if my progress continues, I had about 1 month left in my left leg and undetermined time for the right leg. This means that I should be okay to walk next week on my left leg if my x-rays next week come back great. Dr. Paley was actually surprised by the improvement in bone consolidation last month. It was probably because I drank a lot of milk, used an Exogen 4000+ machine, and took extra calcium/vitamin D supplements.
I took a few baby steps without crutches lately to see if I could still walk, and it looked like it was possible. Another patient who did only 7.5 cm on his femurs and did his surgery a month earlier than me was walking a few weeks ago. When I saw his x-rays, he had a big fat rounded piece of bone where his gap used to be. It looked twice as thick as the rest of femurs. However, it still looked lighter colored than the rest of his femur. This means that the bone is chalky and not solidified yet. But it symbolizes bone union, and supports enough in combination with his internal nail to support his entire weight. Probably in 12-18 months, it'd be solidified and he'd be able to take out his rod.
I get an x-ray once a month, and contact Dr. Paley directly by email with my x-rays. He responds within the same day or the next day - usually very early in the morning or sometime around dinner time.
DoingitForMe,
Are you planing a new surgery in order to gain 2 cms more in the famur?
Is it possible to break the famur again? how long do you need to consolidate the previous broken?
Many Thanks
Quote from: yagen on November 26, 2015, 04:10:38 PMDoingitForMe,
Are you planing a new surgery in order to gain 2 cms more in the famur?
Is it possible to break the famur again? how long do you need to consolidate the previous broken?
Many Thanks
No, I don't plan on doing anymore surgery except to remove the nails inside of me. After going through what I went through, I don't want to do it again. It was worth it when I was gaining 3.1 inches and going from short to normal height. But it's not worth it to just go 2 cm more.
It's possible to break the femur again and then go through the whole process again. You have to wait until your femur consolidates first, though. And you probably risk losing a lot of your athleticism for it, because your soft tissues are already stretched to its limits. At that point, it probably is more worth it to just do your tibias. The precice nails in me already reached its maximum capacity at 8 cm. So if I want 2 cm more, I'd have to get a whole new nail.
Generally it takes 2-3 months after you stop lengthening to consolidate enough and be able to walk again. To fully consolidate and be able to remove the nail, it takes 12-18 months.
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